Kells led Joan and Cleve from one part of the smoky hall to another,
and they looked on at the games and the strange raw life manifested
there. The place was getting packed with men. Kells's party
encountered Blicky and Beady Jones together. They passed by as
strangers. Then Joan saw Beard and Chick Williams arm in arm,
strolling about, like roystering miners. Williams telegraphed a
keen, fleeting glance at Kells, then went on, to be lost in the
crowd. Handy Oliver brushed by Kells, jostled him, apparently by
accident, and he said, "Excuse me, mister!" There were other
familiar faces. Kells's gang were all in Alder Creek and the dark
machinations of the bandit leader had been put into operation. What
struck Joan forcibly was that, though there were hilarity and
comradeship, they were not manifested in any general way. These
miners were strangers to one another; the groups were strangers; the
gamblers were strangers; the newcomers were strangers; and over all
hung an atmosphere of distrust. Good fellowship abided only in the
many small companies of men who stuck together. The mining-camps
that Joan had visited had been composed of an assortment of
prospectors and hunters who made one big, jolly family. This was a
gold strike, and the difference was obvious. The hunting for gold
was one thing, in its relation to the searchers; after it had been
found, in a rich field, the conditions of life and character
changed. Gold had always seemed wonderful and beautiful to Joan; she
absorbed here something that was the nucleus of hate. Why could not
these miners, young and old, stay in their camps and keep their
gold? That was the fatality. The pursuit was a dream--a glittering
allurement; the possession incited a lust for more, and that was
madness. Joan felt that in these reckless, honest miners there was a
liberation of the same wild element which was the driving passion of
Kells's Border Legion. Gold, then, was a terrible thing.
"Take me in there," said Joan, conscious of her own excitement, and
she indicated the dance-hall.
Kells laughed as if at her audacity. But he appeared reluctant.
"Please take me--unless--" Joan did not know what to add, but she
meant unless it was not right for her to see any more. A strange
curiosity had stirred in her. After all, this place where she now
stood was not greatly different from the picture imagination had
conjured up. That dance-hall, however, was beyond any creation of
Joan's mind.
"Let me have a look first," said Kells, and he left Joan with Cleve.